


You Know Me

by TheDweeb



Series: In Another World my Smile was Meant for You [7]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Garleans (Final Fantasy XIV), M/M, Miqo'te (Final Fantasy XIV), Not Canon Compliant, but yanno what my canon my rules YOLO, enjoy the cute, idk if there would be pencils, or paper even, vellum is something wholly different
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 12:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18969337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDweeb/pseuds/TheDweeb
Summary: You would think you would know a person after six years. That was the amazing thing about S'ean, though. Six years and Justus was still finding out new things about him, and falling more in love.





	You Know Me

_Skritch, skritch, skriiiiiiiiitch_ …

Justus was three cups of coffee into the night, his last having been finished half a bell ago. A mountain of paperwork littered his desk, and only half of it truly needed his attention. The rub was that he still needed to read through all of it to know what was important and what was not. He could have had it finished earlier that afternoon. He should have. However, he had found himself most distracted by a warmer than usual autumn day--replete with sunshine!--and so had dragged his family outdoors for a lovely afternoon stroll.

_Skriiiiitch, skritch, shff_...

He had known the consequences of his actions. Knowing a thing and accepting it were two different things, however, and as he continued to read the various proposals--a referendum to what rights the Aan should be afforded, a new outline of what constitutes a citizen of Garlemald, and for some gods damned reason a zoning contract, among others--he began to get a headache. The caffeine surely was not helping matters but even less helpful was that soft, barely there scratching sound. It was as if a mouse had taken up residence in his skull and was gently clawing at the walls of it. He could turn on music to drown it out--he often did have recordings playing when he had particularly tedious work to do--but he could not afford more distractions.

_Skritch, skritch, skritch_ …

Justus tried his best to work through it. For all that he seemed flippant, the lazy fop was merely a finely crafted persona that he projected. Like the wolf in sheep’s clothing he was much more dangerous than he appeared, and he took his job very seriously. True, the people he represented hardly felt that he was fit to do so what with his wealth and status, but that was why he worked all the harder on their behalf. With that incessant noise grating in his brain, however, he could not give full focus to very important matters. Then his thinly threaded patience finally snapped.

“What _is_ that infernal noise?” he hissed as he stood abruptly, slamming his hands on his desk.

A startled squeak was not what he had expected to hear, and for a brief moment he wondered if perhaps there really _was_ a mouse in his study. Looking over at his couch--that often served as his bed many a night--he found the source and his eyes widened to match S’ean’s; in expression if not in size. He had not heard him come in, nor had he seen or heard him sit. But there he was, bare feet on the cushion with his toes digging in for grip and his knees drawn up to hold...a book? No, it was something else.

“How long have you been there, darling?”

“Um, a bell, I think,” came the soft reply. “Maybe a little longer since Julius brought you more coffee while I was here.”

A bell and a half at least, then. And S’ean would not have disturbed his work, not when he saw him focusing so intently. Were he idling, flipping pages boredly with his chin in his hand, he knew he would have been commanded to bed. The very thought was enticing even now, but he could not set this aside any longer no matter how vexing any of it was. Would that S’ean had any knowledge or interest in the politics of his station he would ask him to lend his eyes to help separate the wheat from the chaff, but alas. Still, he was most curious what S’ean had been doing for that bell and a half or so that he had been on the couch. And where had that noise gone?

“Well, since you’ve been here a time, perhaps you can solve a riddle for me, darling,” he said, voice turning to a drawn out groan as he stretched his arms high overhead.

The groan turned to a grunt when his back popped and he gave a sheepish grin to his medicus who only shook his head and sighed before tilting his head quizzically to the side. Justus’s grin turned to a fond smile, and that was all the warning S’ean got before he moved to the couch then kissed him soundly on the mouth. Their relationship was still new enough that the young medicus would blush at the drop of a hat, but that only made him more endearing. 

“What’s that?” S’ean asked, diverting his attention.

“Ah, yes. While you’ve been here, have you noticed a scratching sound?”

S’ean’s ears twitched as he tilted his head the other way; in confusion or thought, he was not sure which. Stroking the hair on his chin, Justus realized he might need an example. He leaned forward, placing his hand on the wall behind the couch, and lightly scratched his neatly trimmed nails over the wallpaper. When the sound was a bit too soft, he increased the pressure and was rewarded with a similar enough sound that he gave a nod of affirmation.

“Like that. Not exact, but close enough.”

Brown eyes narrowed in thought and S’ean brought up the pencil Justus had not realized he had been holding to tap it on his chin. Glancing down, he finally noticed exactly what was in his lover’s lap and it clicked. The ceruleum wick finally lit in his mind and he barked out a laugh that was both surprised and very much amused. It also made S’ean jump again and he turned to fall onto the couch next to him, one arm wrapping around his shoulders while the other stretched out over the back of the furniture piece, and folded one leg over the other.

“You’re going to give me heart palpitations!” S’ean said, one hand over his heart.

“I don’t already? Well, I must needs change my wooing tactics.”

He laughed again, less sharp this time, as he was shoved lightly. Resting his cheek on top of S’ean’s mop of brown curls, he took a closer look at the pad of paper resting on his legs. It was thick, full to the brim of hardy drawing stock paper. The stuff was rather expensive but for good reason, and the visible page showed exactly what all the earlier scratching had been creating. He had apparently interrupted S’ean’s detailing work as the full sketch was done.

“Did I really look that angry?” he asked.

The furrow in his brow was very pronounced, even with his hand partially obscuring it as he rested his forehead against his fingers. His mouth was drawn downward in a rather pronounced ‘u’ shape and his eyes were tired. He looked terrible but not because of S’ean’s skill. In fact, his skills were superb and Justus found himself very impressed. He also wondered how he had did not know this was something part of his lover’s skillset. 

“How long have you been doing this?”

“Hmm? Oh, I just started at, mm, three quarters of a bell ago,” came the reply and he shook his head with a smile before placing a kiss between soft brown ears.

“No, darling. Your art in general,” he clarified. “How long have you been drawing?”

“Oh! Um…”

An ear twitched against his nose, and he smiled into S’ean’s hair while he waited for an answer. 

“Since I was a kitten,” he replied with a shrug. “I learned from my aunt--she does portraits by the way, did I ever tell you that?--and I’ve just kept up. Aunt Milly always made sure I had supplies until I was able to get my own. Why?”

“Well, I had absolutely no idea, darling!”

The look of surprise on S’ean’s face when he turned to him elicited the third laugh of the night. Pulling him close, he placed another kiss to his lips, tongue slipping into his mouth to deepen it. Pleased, as he always was, by the moan he got in response he let him go to nuzzle into his hair. The discovery was a pleasant one, and a clearly much needed distraction if the drawing was any indication, but he did not have the time to indulge any further.

“Six years and I’ve never so much as seen a scribble,” he said. “Are you sure you weren’t with the military more than a month?”

S’ean’s eyes rolled so far they almost went out of his head, but he was smiling. Accepting the chaste kiss he received in turn, Justus gently extricated himself before standing with a sigh. There was yet more work to be done now that his mystery had been solved. That he still did not want to deal with the tedium of it was no less true; just as it was still true that it was necessary.

“Do I need to stop?” came the quiet query as he settled back in his chair and Justus smiled softly in return.

“Oh no, darling. You go right on ahead,” he replied. “Now that I know what it is it won’t be quite so bothersome. Ah-ah, no don’t look so glum. I was already in a mood not of your making, and I do owe you an apology, by the way. I did not mean to startle you. That I didn’t know you were there means little.”

“You _don’t_ have to apologize, but I accept it anyway. And I’ll try to be quieter. Actually, would you like some tea? I just realized I’m thirsty.”

“Your generosity knows no bounds, my darling, and yes. I think that would help more than coffee at this juncture anyway. Thank you.”

Watching as S’ean set his pad and pencil aside, he then turned back into his work and was pleased to find his focus was sharper. A break was apparently what he needed and he gave a silent thanks to his lover as he quietly crept from the room. On the morrow he would have to interrogate the staff to see who else knew about his sweet medicus’s hidden talent. And perhaps he could convince S’ean to share more of his work.

**Author's Note:**

> So, for clarity's sake I figure I'll outline what this is all about.
> 
> Where Valtristus and I have put our OCs into the FFXIV universe we have also made AUs within that AU. This series takes place on a completely different Shard from FFXIV Canon; which is on the Source. Thusly, the characters while having the same names are essentially different iterations of their Source counterparts (with the exception of Justus, who is product of us fucking around with lore and theorycrafting concepts). Too, the world shares same and similar names to places on the Source, but the history and current events of the world are different; we're just too lazy to think of new names.
> 
> This series specifically focuses on Justus and S'ean with a few other of our OCs coming in and out. If you've got questions feel free to drop a comment or message to ask (I'm still learning how things work, bear with me please). And thanks for reading! (All titles will be taken from their joint playlist)


End file.
